| Field notes | Spanish: "Macana". A solitary tree. Base with a loose cover of red adventitious roots reaching 20 cm up the trunk, each root about 5 mm diam. Trunk ascending, 270 cm high and 7 cm in diam, brown with 7 cm long smooth internodes alternating with 1 cm wide leafscars. Crown of 14 spreading leaves. Leafsheat about 50 cm long, open to the base but completely encirching the trunk; petiole about 40 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, abaxially rounded, adaxially flat; Blade 210 x 100 cm, pinnately divided with about 11 pinnae on each side, the pinnae from 2 to 20 cm wide at the attachment to the rachis and one to 9-plicate, i.e. the blade is not segmented at even intervals. Inflorescences 3, inserted at the 3rd, 4th and 5th node below the lowest leaf; the whole inflorescence with mealy cover, basal parts greenish the rest maroun (?) (bordeaux-red), the exeited flowers pink and the young fruits green; peduncle 20 cm long; rachis 70 cm long; 3 x branched with 17 branches of 1st order, the whole inflorescence about 90 cm wide and 90 cm long with the peduncle pointing slightly upwards and the rachis turning to point slightly downwards. Uses: According to a middleaged man who passed by the leaves of this palms are exellent for thatching. He distinguished this palms because it had "hojas anchas" = broad leaves, (referring to the pinnae) in contrast to another species he called "palmito" which appears to be the same as no HB-4273. |
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